“I have a floor?” Leo asked before he could think better of the question. He’d rarely had a room to himself and never an entire apartment. Even as an adult, he typically bunked with one of the other male employees of the McAdams Family Flying Circus.
Mrs.Lewis glanced over her shoulder. Her blue eyes were kind, not judging. “The tower isn’t too big, so the rooms are generous but not oversize.”
Leo grunted and scratched the back of his head. Any bed that wasn’t a bunk would feel spacious. He had no idea why Vera hadn’t put them in the servant quarters. He would have felt more comfortable there, but Mattie would enjoy living in a turret. No one enjoyed a view more than her.
“Here are your rooms, sir.” Mrs.Lewis paused on a landing and pushed open a wooden door. “Miss McAdams’s apartment is identical to yours. The Misses Lenhart will also be staying in this tower.”
Leo stepped inside with Mattie close behind. If Mrs.Lewis was surprised that Mattie boldly entered a man’s room, she didn’t show it. But then again, the housekeeper’s employer was the legendary Vera Jones.
Leo’s cheeks burned, and he hoped his tan hid the flush. Already, Mattie’s mere presence in his assigned apartment caused his heart to chug like a late express train trying to make up lost time. Mattie, of course, remained oblivious as she ran to the big round glass window that overlooked the lake. She gasped in utter delight as she leaned forward, her fingers clutching the deep sill, her forehead nearly pressed against the glass. Excitedly, she waved for Leo to join her, obviously eager for him to take in the scenery and not realizing that he’d much rather watch her delight than gaze upon the bright-blue lake below.
Mattie thought no more of entering his assigned bedchamber than she would one of her siblings’. Despite her odd heated looks after they’d landed in Vera’s field, she just saw him as another annoying brother. Nothing more. Nothing romantic. And he should want to keep it that way. Heneededto keep it that way. For her sake. For his.
Chapter Five
“Well, isn’t this the berries! Just when we need a hero, the Flying Lion appears.” The breathy voice seemed to float up the circular staircase like floral perfume. Mattie peered over Leo’s shoulder to catch a glance at the speaker. With large Clara Bow eyes, the blonde woman stared up at Leo. Her makeup mirrored that of a movie star, her mouth painted into a perfect Cupid’s bow. Soft short curls completed an innocent, sweet look that sent an incongruous whisper of awkward unease through Mattie. She felt like a schoolgirl again, wearing her brothers’ hand-me-downs while her female peers in their big bows and frilly pinafore dresses regarded her like an unwanted toad who dared to approach songbirds.
The starlet in training somehow managed to make her doe eyes even bigger as she continued to regard Leo through her thick black eyelashes—a look clearly obtained by applying powdered coal mixed with petroleum jelly andnotthrough nature. “I’ve followed stories about you since the war. Why, you’re even more handsome in person than in your photographs! Those grainy black-and-white shots donotdo you full justice.”
Although vamps always crowded around Leo before and after his aerial performances, their attention always made him visibly uncomfortable. Oh, he hid it well, but Mattie could always detect the strain at the edge of his politeness, just as she could now. Evidently, the newcomerwas unwittingly making him feel even more ill at ease than Mattie felt in this woman’s presence.
“Why are you in need of a hero?” Mattie asked.
The woman’s blue gaze swept over Leo’s shoulder to land upon Mattie. Although the flirtatious gleam dissipated, the blonde’s seeming good cheer did not, much to Mattie’s surprise. “Oh, you must be Miss McAdams! I’m Lily Lenhart, by the way, wing-walker in training. My sister, Sadie, is going to be another pilot in Vera’s circus. We’re originally farm girls from Western Pennsylvania, so we have a lot to learn.”
Despite the husky quality of her voice, Lily delivered each detail in rapid succession. She didnot, however, answer Mattie’s actual question.
“Is there some kind of problem that I can assist with?” Leo asked, his quiet voice laced with concern.
“Oh yes!” Lily said as she pivoted and started to lead them down the staircase. “It is so handy that I ran into you. I know we were all going to meet in the pink parlor, but when Sadie and I were looking out the window, we spied Miss Aida Sanchez-Espinosa arriving. She is an heiress too! Not Sadie, of course, but Aida. She’s from California, but she and Vera roomed together at a boarding school in Switzerland. Can you imagine? I would have absolutely thought I’d died and gone to heaven if I’d been able to live in such a ritzy place, although I guess I’m staying in a castle right now.”
“But what’s wrong?” Mattie prodded, trying to keep the frustration from her tone. She didn’t even try to parse through the details. She figured she’d meet the other women soon enough.
“Aida’s car, of course. Steam was pouring out of it like a teakettle. Sadie—who always insists on poking around tractors—went running out to help. I stayed behind for a few minutes. My makeup wasn’t done yet, and I am next to useless when it comes to machinery. When I glanced out before I left, I spied Vera.”
“Is Leo’s help really needed if your sister is good with motors?” Mattie asked, her patience starting to fray.
“Well, it’s always good to have a hero around.” Lily wiggled her gloved fingers, as if that explained everything. They’d reached the bottom of the steps, and the blonde led them through a set of french doors out onto a terrace. In the section of the driveway situated behind the castle, a black Dodge sedan stood with vapor hissing out from it. A short gal with her brunette hair pulled back in a simple braid leaned over the open hood. Dressed in practical trousers and a shirt that, like Mattie’s, were a little too big for her slender frame, she eyed the steaming radiator. Although the tanned, freckle-faced farm girl looked nothing like the bubbly, Hollywood-style Lily, Mattie still assumed she was the aforementioned sister.
“You overheated the engine, Aida,” Sadie called out as she started to pull on long leather gloves to protect her hands before working on the hot radiator.
“I’m afraid I’m not accustomed to a Dodge. I must have pushed the poor thing too hard. I was treating it like my parents’ Rolls.” A woman whom Mattie assumed was Miss Sanchez-Espinosa, the California heiress, lifted her head from the notebook she’d been scrawling in. Aida’s cream boatneck dress was just as elegant as Vera’s, but hers had a more tailored, polished look, and the hemline hit lower on the calf. Her Dutch-bobbed dark-brown hair gave her wire-rimmed spectacles a jaunty flair. Like their hostess, she had perfectly applied lipstick, although it was a richer burgundy shade, which complemented the warm undertones of her light-brown skin.
Vera patted her boarding school chum’s arm. “I don’t know why you didn’t just borrow an automobile from me. I have a whole carriage house full of them. The least you could have done was buy a Packard, Lincoln, or Cadillac.”
“The Dodge looks like it’s a good-quality vehicle,” Sadie called out. “It just wouldn’t have the ability to cruise all day under a hot sun like the Rolls.”
“I wanted something durable to take on the road with us,” Aida explained. “It’s practical.”
Vera bumped her friend’s arm. “Are you insinuating that I’m not practical?”
Aida shot the flapper an exceedingly dry look before returning to writing in her little bound book. Lily stood on her tiptoes to glance over the Californian’s shoulder.
“Whatever are you scribbling?” Lily asked.
Aida did not lift her fountain pen from the page. “I am taking notes for my thesis about the upending of traditional gender expectations. Anecdotes like this will keep my essays quite lively and will help me turn the project into a book.”
Mattie stared at the heiress, almost as interested in her as in the Dodge engine. She definitely understood Aida’s words less than she did the machine, but they fascinated her nonetheless.Upending of traditional gender expectations.What a delightful, tantalizing turn of phrase. Mattie wanted to take it apart as much as she did the machinery a few yards away.
